The Defector by Daniel Silva (reviewed by readafew)

here's another one, looking for opinions and suggestions, thanks ahead of time.

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The Defector is the 9th book in the Gabriel Allon series. Gabriel and Chiara are recuperating at a villa in Italy, Gabriel is refinishing a painting for the Vatican. Both are laying low, off Ivan Kharkov’s radar, whose family defected from Russia and from him who was helped by Gabriel and his team. Out of the blue Grigori Bulganov, another person who defected at the same time as Ivan’s family, disappeared from Britain and it appeared he left on his own violation. Gabriel didn’t buy it and decided to look into it and keep a promise he made.

While Gabriel was looking into Grigori’s disappearance and checking on other people who could be in on the hit list, when his wife Chiara is kidnapped. Gabriel knows who did it and why. The question he wants answered is can he get her back alive?

This was my favorite Gabriel Allon book and it kept the action and suspense up there without getting overpowering. In this one Gabriel is a man with a mission and it is deeply personal. He has an enemy who is rich and powerful and knows he’s coming. I relate this to a ‘man on fire’ kind of book, someone has crossed the line and Gabriel plans on making them pay. Lots of action, lots of excitement and a great spy story on top of it all.

Man, I miss a day I miss a lot! Three new reviews!

First paragraph, the third sentence is a mess. There is so much information jammed in there I was lost. For instance: Both are laying low, off Ivan Kharkov’s radar, whose family Whose family indeed? Gabriel? Chiara? Ivan? And again and from him who was helped by Gabriel and his team. What? I'd divvy that sentence into two or three shorter ones.

First paragraph, fourth sentence, instead of 'violation', I think you mean 'volition'.

First paragraph, fifth sentence: Was looking into the disappearance the promise he had made? If so, you could drop the 'and' and change 'keep' to 'keeping': decided to look into it, keeping a promise he made. I think that would read smoother, but only if the investigation was part of the promise. Otherwise, ignore this whole paragraph:)

In the second paragraph, first sentence: Drop either the word 'while' or the word 'when'. Either one is okay, but the two together reads funny. If you drop the word 'while' also lose the comma after 'hit list'.

In the third sentence of that paragraph I think you should place a colon after 'answered is'.

I have to say I admire that you write detailed reviews so far into a series. Often when you look up a series the first book or two will have plenty of reviews, then they peter out. It becomes hard to tell if the series collapses or not.

I see, I've rewrote those first two sentences of the first para 3-4 times already! but your right it needs another go.

Thanks for the tips. I try to write a decent review for all the books I read, though this one is for the blog that I review books for.

Any other problems or suggestions?
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The Defector is the 9th book in the Gabriel Allon series. Gabriel and Chiara are recuperating at a villa in Italy, Gabriel is refinishing a painting for the Vatican. Both are laying low, off Ivan Kharkov’s radar, since Ivan's family defected from both Russia and him with the help of Gabriel and his team. Out of the blue Grigori Bulganov, another person who defected at the same time as Ivan’s family, disappeared from Britain and it appeared he left on his own volition. Gabriel didn’t buy it and decided to look into it, keeping a promise he made.

Gabriel was looking into Grigori’s disappearance and checking on other people who could be in on the hit list when his wife Chiara is kidnapped. Gabriel knows who did it and why. The question he wants answered is: can he get her back alive?

This was my favorite Gabriel Allon book and it kept the action and suspense up there without getting overpowering. In this one Gabriel is a man with a mission and it is deeply personal. He has an enemy who is rich and powerful and knows he’s coming. I relate this to a ‘man on fire’ kind of book, someone has crossed the line and Gabriel plans on making them pay. Lots of action, lots of excitement and a great spy story on top of it all.

That first paragraph makes a LOT more sense now. I wonder if it wouldn't make more send to mention Gabriel and his team prior to Ivan's family: a result of Gabriel and his team helping Ivan's family defect from Russia. But I might just be nitpicking there.

For a mid-series review it seems mostly fine.

Spurious 'and him' in that same 3rd sentence?

5 > the 'him' was supposed to refer back to Ivan, his family didn't like him and ran away from him as well as Mother Russia

Ah. Not entirely clear - if it was in the previous book in the series I'd leave it as is, because most people will know. Otherwise it's tricky re-write. Maybe add a 'both' after the from?

I liked that change, I added the 'both' to the previous one, didn't think it was worth adding the whole thing again for one word.